USA Today ---
Why is Melania Trump threatening to sue Hunter Biden? Here's her story on meeting Donald
- Hunter Biden claims Jeffrey Epstein introduced Donald and Melania Trump, a claim Melania Trump denies.
- Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden if he doesn't retract his claim.
- Trump maintains she met her husband at a New York City nightclub in 1998.
First lady Melania Trump and former President Joe Biden's son are feuding over different accounts of how she met Donald Trump.
[...] The first lady on Aug. 6 threatened to sue for more than $1 billion if he didn't retract the claim, and Biden said in a follow up video, “F--- that. That’s not going to happen."
[...] On Aug. 6, the first lady threatened to sue Biden for more than $1 billion if he doesn’t retract the claim.
The legal notice by Alejandro Brito, the first lady’s lawyer, demands that Biden "immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump."
Donald Trump said he encouraged his wife's legal action against Biden.
"Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania," Trump said August. 14, during an interview with Fox Radio's Brian Kilmeade. "But they do that to demean. I told her to go ahead and do it. She was very upset about it."
Other outlets have also received notices from Melania Trump's lawyer over similar claims and issued apologies and retractions. But Biden doesn't seem poised to back down.
Same lawyer as sent the SLAPP letter to Michael Wolff. Brito. Reminds me of a brillo pad.
It's not worth the time to track down online copies of the Wolff letter and the Biden letter, but the Crabgrass guess is only names were changed, otherwise same SLAPP letter, same Donald behind it, same bullshit aimed to distance from the Epstein file. You, Donald, own the Epstein files, and allegedly Bondi told you you're in them, and there's no SLAPP claim that will change that. And using the wife as a weapon is shabby. Weaponize the wife - it rings pretty bad, and not well thought out, but we'll see. The New York state courts have the litigation started, Crabgrass opinion is Wolff is right, it's a SLAPP, and time will tell.
As to what's a SLAPP, or a threatned one, under New York law, readers can research that all they want.
With a layman's understanding, after reading a book about SLAPP lawsuits, Crabgrass' guess is it's one. Or the threat to push one, costing a defendant what it will. A billion? Is the Trump wife's reputation worth that? Opinions can range between yes and no, without guessing what the reputation is worth. Melania seems several cuts better than her spouse, but I'd not want to try to do dollar valuations. Melania is likeable.
The claim Melania challenges, mainly, is that she/Donald are unhappy with anyone saying Epstein introduced one to the other. A chance meeting at Kit Kat Club, they say, not Jeffrey. The USAToday item spells it all out, Melania/Donald version.
More coverage, here and here. It seems the Trump Shutdown is a bigger story. More people suffering real and actual injury.